(Marvel Studios/Disney via AP, File). FILE - This file image released by Disney and Marvel Studios' shows Chadwick Boseman in a scene from "Black Panther." “Black Panther” has become the first film since 2000’s “Avatar” to top the weekend box office fi...

"Black Panther" has become the first film since 2000's "Avatar" to top the weekend box office five straight weekends.More >>

"Black Panther" has become the first film since 2000's "Avatar" to top the weekend box office five straight weekends.More >>

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.More >>

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.More >>

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents work the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs detonat...

At least two people injured in another explosion in Texas' capital after three package bombs that detonated earlier this month in other parts of the city killed two people and injuring two others.More >>

At least two people injured in another explosion in Texas' capital after three package bombs that detonated earlier this month in other parts of the city killed two people and injuring two others.More >>

(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato). In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018 photo, Chicago resident Sonja Russell walks up to a voting machine to cast her ballot in Illinois primary elections at the city's new early voting super site in downtown Chicago. In Illinois, at...

The attempted hacking of election systems in 21 states two years ago put the focus on the vulnerability of voter registration systems.More >>

The attempted hacking of election systems in 21 states two years ago put the focus on the vulnerability of voter registration systems.More >>

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents meet at the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs deto...

Police have warned residents near the site of the latest explosion in Austin to remain indoors and to call 911 if they need to leave home before 10 a.m.More >>

Police have warned residents near the site of the latest explosion in Austin to remain indoors and to call 911 if they need to leave home before 10 a.m.More >>

(Joe Ahlquist/The Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP). Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a fatal stabbing Saturday, March 17, 2018, at the Salvation Army Castleview Residence in downtown Rochester, Minn. Police have arrested a man in the multiple...

Police have arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.More >>

Police have arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.More >>

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File). FILE - This Monday, June 19, 2017, file photo shows a user signing in to Facebook on an iPad, in North Andover, Mass. Facebook has a problem it just can’t kick: People keep exploiting it in ways that could sway election...

(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File). FILE - In a Wednesday, March 14, 2018 file photo, Nikolas Cruz is lead out of the courtroom after an arraignment hearing at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cruz is...

Documents show some officials were so concerned about the mental stability of Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in last month's school shooting rampage in Florida, that they had recommended he be forcibly committed.More >>

Documents show some officials were so concerned about the mental stability of Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in last month's school shooting rampage in Florida, that they had recommended he be forcibly committed.More >>

Authorities said Friday that the cables suspending a pedestrian bridge were being tightened after a "stress test" when the 950-ton concrete span collapsed over traffic, killing at least six people and injuring 10

Authorities said Friday that the cables suspending a pedestrian bridge were being tightened after a "stress test" when the 950-ton concrete span collapsed over traffic, killing at least six people and injuring 10

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Brown University has canceled plans to display the house where Rosa Parks lived for a time after she left the south and moved to Detroit.

The house had been on a demolition list until it was saved by Parks' niece and artist Ryan Mendoza, who moved it to Berlin. He brought it back to the United States in pieces last month with Brown's backing, and was reassembling it when the Ivy League university made the abrupt announcement Thursday.

Parks' niece, Rhea McCauley, called the decision a missed opportunity and said the university had not consulted with the family.

"They made this decision on their own," she said.

Brown cited an unspecified dispute involving the R osa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which Parks co-founded but which has feuded with relatives in the past. Brown spokesman Brian Clark said in an email that the university "took steps quickly upon learning recently about the dispute."

"Brown is not a party in the dispute and therefore we are not in a position to speak about the nature of the dispute," when asked for more details. "Also, we know that individuals involved in the dispute intended to object strongly if the exhibit proceeded. It is out of our respect for the legacy of Rosa Parks that Brown is stepping aside."

A message left for the institute was not immediately returned Thursday. But a lawyer for the institute, Steven Cohen, cast doubt on the connection to Parks in comments he made to The Brown Daily Herald student newspaper last month.

"The truth is, she didn't stay there," he told the newspaper. "It's a house which Rosa Parks' brother and his family used to live in. It's no more Rosa Parks' house than it is my house."

McCauley disputed that, as did Ray Rickman, a Providence community activist who worked with Parks for three years in the office of U.S. Rep. John Conyers in Detroit. Rickman, who sometimes drove Parks to church, recalled driving by the house with Parks one day.

"She told me she used to live in it. And I laughed and said that's a tiny house, and she said a lot of people lived in it," he said. "It was something to that effect. And then she laughed and I laughed and changed the subject."

Mendoza, who owns the house, decided to bring it to Brown because it has grappled in recent years with its historical ties to the slave trade. He disassembled the house, packed it up and sent it by ship across the Atlantic and has spent the past few weeks preparing the site for the house and building a frame for it.

Mendoza had planned to reassemble it piece by piece for a display that was due to open to the public next month. He said someone told him a lawyer had threatened Brown with a cease-and-desist letter, and he learned Thursday afternoon that the display was canceled. He pointed out that the decision was announced a few hours after he published a statement calling on Brown to rename itself "Rosa Parks University."

"Maybe Brown took on a project too big for them," Mendoza said. "Brown does not command this ship, and this house will go on to find a better home, but it breaks my heart that there should be such vast cowardice, everybody's ducking and hiding."

McCauley called the house a part of history and said the project was an effort to help students "understand Auntie Rosa's legacy."

"It's a missed opportunity for Brown University to begin to repair the legacy of slavery," she said.

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